Christmas Eve Eve

"Twas the night before Christmas Eve, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
Except for this mother."

Zoe went to bed at 7:15, Aidan went to bed at 8:15, Hubby went to bed at 8:30. I am enjoying the peace and quiet, and waiting for everything to finish baking.

Yup. I couldn't stop myself, against my better judgment, I have been baking like a fiend. The dough for four loaves of challah was started before dinner, it completed its first rise during dinner. After putting Z to bed, I braided the dough, and let it rise while Aidan and I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies, we then put Aidan to bed. Then, the oven was turned on, and I started the dough for oatmeal raisin cookies, and a blueberry boy bait cake. (I am using this new recipe for chocolate chip cookie that uses melted butter. It really makes a difference!)

Just think, I have used up two pounds of butter tonight. I am sure the makers of Lipitor will thank me later.

Meanwhile, all this is giving me time to think.

I met with the residents today and shared my thoughts about career development for psychiatrists. It was great to be back in the same room where I had lectures for four years, where I had lunch with my fellow residents, where I learned how to be a clinician. Strangely, the residents that did not overlap with me kept coming into the room and asking me if I was an applicant. Do I look that young?! Seriously.

The take away point for those residents, and for those medical students/ interns/ residents who read this blog: You will never find the 'perfect' job. You will find a job that suits your current needs, but needs change, and inevitably what worked well two years ago might not work for you anymore, and the key is to be flexible and to not put all your self worth in your job. Come to think of it, this point is probably useful by everyone who works, myself included. (My self worth is in the fact that I am a daughter of God. How awesome is that?!)

I was also thinking about this young person I involuntarily hospitalized yesterday. He and I are the same age, yet his life is taking a very different direction due to schizophrenia. As I watched him decompensate these last few weeks, it became obvious that he needed to be hospitalized and medicated before he ran into more problems with his life. While he needed this, and it was my job to do this, I really could do without involuntary hospitalizations. First of all, it really just ruins any rapport I have worked hard to build with paranoid, psychotic people. Secondly, it is simply a pain to do this.

When someone is sick enough to be hospitalized against their will, they need to be transported by either ambulance or police. Inevitably, the ambulance takes forever to come. With a psychotic person, I just do not have this kind of time! So then, I am instructed by powers at be to call the police and say, "This patient is violent so please come to take him away." Well, my guy wasn't violent. He was just quietly psychotic, not sleeping, not eating, not doing anything, other than listening to his hallucinations. It bugs me, that I need to cry wolf to get help. I imagine that the police would show up, and think, "Geez, these shrinks sure exaggerate. This guy is not violent at all!" And that thought would be totally accurate! Therefore, next time, when there really is a violent person (like there was a month ago, when this person pulled up plants outside the clinic and started throwing them around!) the police still took forever to get there. Seriously, better communication would help tremendously, instead just lying!

Well, everything is now out of the oven. Time to start laundry while they cool, then package them (I will get Hubby to take a picture of them tomorrow), load up the car and call it a night!